Great Cormorant

Australia has five species of cormorant and we get to see the Great, the Little Black, the Pied and the Little Pied from time to time in our neck of the woods. The fifth one, the Black-faced, is more of a coastal species.

Great Cormorant - McNeilly Park, Drouin

During a recent Drouin bird survey at McNeilly Park in Drouin, a distant Great Cormorant had the surveyors scrambling for their field guides. The ‘dirty’ white breast confused us for a bit.

Great Cormorant - Lake Guthridge, Sale

The 70-90cm Great Cormorant is our largest cormorant. It is mostly all black with a yellow facial skin and white cheek patch.

Great and Little Pied Cormorant - Frankston Reservoir

The Great Cormorant often has several ‘local’ names: Black Cormorant, Australian Cormorant, Large Black Cormorant, Big Black Cormorant or Shag. Its scientific name, Phalacocorax carbo, means bald charcoal raven! Shag is an apparent reference to the ‘tangled hairstyle’ of the crest that the breeding adult acquires.

Great Cormorant 'wrestling' an eel - Alex Goudie Park, Drouin

Great Cormorants are fish-eating birds and they dive and can remain submerged for some time as they hunt their prey. In some countries around the world, cormorant fishing is a fishing technique used by fishermen who tie a snare around the bird's throat preventing it from swallowing the fish. The fisherman retrieves the fish from the bird by ‘encouraging’ it to regurgitate.

In Norway, the Great Cormorant is a game bird and thousands are shot each year for human consumption.

 

Walckenaer's Studded Arkys

The Studded Arkys is an ambush hunter. It has dispensed with using a web to capture prey and uses the inward-pointing spines on its front legs with which to secure its victims. (Charles Walckenaer was a founder of the French Entomological Society in 1832.)

The triangular Studded Arkys can be variable in colour.

This one was found on some eucalypt leaves among some lerp. It looks like it is about to prey on the lerp but more likely is waiting to ambush the Psyllid underneath.

Arkys walckenaeri is a common, small spider found mostly on native vegetation. It is harmless to humans.

Australian Reed Warbler

Always a delight to hear ‘querty-querty-querty’ coming from the reed beds in spring.

The wetland that is part of The Fairways development just south of the Drouin golf course, was a hot spot for the Australian Reed Warbler this last spring.

Great little bird that nearly always gives away its presence with its loud calling during breeding season, mostly from out of sight in the reeds. 

Every now and then, one will pop up to the top of the reeds to loudly declare its territory.

Shining Bronze Cuckoo

Chrysococcyx lucidus, the Shining Bronze Cuckoo, prefers to parasitize the dome-shaped nests of thornbills, fairy-wrens, gerygones and scrubwrens.

The Shining Bronze Cuckoo and the Horsefield’s Bronze Cuckoo are the two bronze cuckoos we see most around here. The SB Cuckoo has a diagnostic ‘whistling the dog’ call LINK – each note rising in pitch. The HB Cuckoo’s call is a persistent, descending whistle LINK. The SB Cuckoo lacks a distinctive dark stripe through the eye that is very obvious in the HB Cuckoo.

Left: SB Cuckoo                   Right: HB Cuckoo (credit: eBird)

Shining Bronze Cuckoos use the perch and pounce technique to feed on caterpillars, beetles, craneflies and ants. They tend to prefer the wetter forest types but often disperse into drier coastal scrub and woodlands – wherever their favourite host species like to nest.

Most individual SB Cuckoos are migratory, arriving here in spring to breed and heading to the northern parts of Australia in autumn. It is not unusual though for some remain south over winter.

The little ‘dog whistler’ is a great sign that spring has arrived.

Mt Cannibal rocks

The title of this post should be Mt Cannibal’s rocks.

The rocks in Mt Cannibal Flora and Fauna Reserve at Garfield North chiefly consist of 350 million year-old ‘Tynong Granite’. They occur in outcrops of large slabs and massive boulders. Some are beautifully shaped by various agents of erosion.

Others have inclusion bands of other minerals.

Many are split in half by mechanical weathering.

Some show evidence of exfoliation of their outer layers by eons of expansion and contraction.

Rocky outcrops provide niche micro-climates for a diverse array of flora, fauna and fungi.

Many rocks on Mt Cannibal have their own vegetation patterns called rock outcrop complex. A large number of plants and ecological vegetation and animal communities are associated with rock outcrops.

Mt Cannibal’s rocks make a considerable contribution to the biodiversity of the reserve. Mt Cannibal does indeed rock!

 

Grey Currawong

The Grey Currawong, Strepera versicolor, is seldom seen in and around the urban areas of West Gippsland. However only a short distance north into the low foothills and down south in some of the coastal woodlands, it is not unusual to encounter this bird. Some references suggest the populations are in decline locally because of a resistance to adapt to human urbanization. They certainly are a more shy bird than their close relative and much more common Pied Currawong.

Grey Currawongs have a less massive bill than Pied Currawongs and the ones in these parts are certainly grey (sometimes a dark grey) but not at all black. ‘Versicolor’ means variable in colour. Grey Currawongs have a distinctive ‘calink-a-link’ or ‘ching-a-ling’ call LINK. The Pied Currawong sounds like ‘hark-hark-the-lark’ LINK, or the recognizable ‘wolf whistle’ as they settle down at night.

Australia wide, there are 3 species of currawong, the pied, the grey and the black. There are several sub-species too and in some localities it is not easy to differentiate them. Currawongs are more closely related to magpies and butcherbirds than to ravens or crows.

The Grey Currawong is described as sedentary (more or less stays in the one territory year-round). The Pied Currawong in this area is definitely an altitudinal migrant. Grey Currawongs are omnivorous and spend a lot of time feeding on insects, larvae and small reptiles on the ground and under the bark of trees as well as seeds and fruit.

‘Currawong’ is an aboriginal onomatopoeic name.

Heyfield Box, Stringybark and Ironbark woodlands

A recent brief trip ‘back home’ brought about a reacquaintance with some old favourites.

Top: Heyfield F&F Reserve. Bottom: Ironbark north of the town

Golden Grevillea (Vicflora LINK)

Grevillea chrysophaea is a Victorian endemic listed as Vulnerable in the Victorian Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act. A few plants remain within the Heyfield Flora and Fauna Reserve, despite some (misguided?) attempts to remove them by the slashing of a fire break! Different forms of chrysophaea grow in different habitats – Holey Plains, Brisbane Ranges, Licola, etc.

Fairy Wax-flower (Vicflora LINK)

The Heyfield Flora and Fauna Reserve is one of the few places east of Melbourne where Philotheca verrucosa can be found. I could only find about 6 plants this time around – they’re pretty scarce on the ground at this site.

Tiny Greenhood (Vicflora LINK)

Although widespread and common throughout the state, Pterostylis parviflora is often overlooked due to its tiny size – the flowerheads are not much bigger than 6 or 7mm and lack the notched labellum of the Trim. The Ironbark woodland just north of Heyfield is a favourite place to find this cryptic greenhood.